Storm aftermath

View out of my front window. The branch is hanging on the power line.
On of the beautiful trees in front of our school, most of these trees were cut to the ground.
This huge tree blocked the street for 2 days and pinned the power lines to the ground.
Another broken tree at Lego.
These are power lines hanging down in my yard.
A tree blocking the street.

No fresh food :(

Target was able to stay open with a generator. So weird to shop in a cold, dark store with very limited goods.
Lots of Lego time!
Read lots of books.
Rock band
Writing by lantern light.

This is just a glimpse of what our week was like. I am still amazed how much damage snow can do to such a beautiful area! In the beginning, Saturday at 4:30, we thought we might be out for a few hours. It was fun, we carved our pumpkins, wrote, read all by the light of the lantern. Our house was cozy warm and we had full bellies from a Halloween party.

As the night progressed, things went from fun and peaceful to terrifying and prayerful. I was sure that our cute little home was going to be crushed by the giant trees on our property. I will never forget the terrifying sounds of branches snapping and crashing to the ground. This went on all night. The trees hadn't lost their leaves, it snowed a foot, and the winds kicked in.

We woke up to a war zone, I hardly recognized my beautiful neighborhood. EVERY yard in my town had trees down, power lines dangling. Some homes had structural damage and cars were crushed. Sunday church was canceled, it was impossible to get around town. By this time it was cold!! My kids wanted to play in the snow, but there was no way to warm them up or dry their wet clothes.

At this point, we knew power would not be coming anytime soon. We hung out with hats and gloves on and several layers of clothes. I moved all of our food into our chest freezer. Luckily I had several bags of ice from our hurricane preparation. We snuggled up in our beds and slept under piles of blankets. It was very discouraging to wake up and realize that we got to go another day with our power. I am amazed how much of my day depends on electricity. School was canceled for the entire week.

We have always loved Lego, but now we love the company even more. They take great care of their employees. The company was without power, just like everyone else, but they generously shared their generator. They opened the office up as a shelter for Lego families. We showered, ate, played, charged our phones, checked our internet, and made life long friends. Our family loved all the bonding time as we played with Lego bricks and rocked out to Rock Band. It was a great place to be stranded. This went on until FRIDAY!!! I get emotional when I think of the kindness we were shown.

Even though it was FREEZING, frustrating, monotonous, and discouraging I am sure I will cherish these memories. I loved snuggling with my family, talking by the fire, enjoying lots of hot chocolate, reading by candle light, laughing until we cried, etc. I love the sense of community I feel. It was great to see neighbors helping each other. We were all in the same boat and we took care of each other.

By the end of the week there were clean up crews and power crews all over the place. They had come from ALL OVER the COUNTRY to come help us. Friday around 7pm there were 2 crews working on my house. I went out to thank them and found they were from KANSAS!!! I was so humbled and appreciative to think that this crew had come so far to help us in our plight.

We built up our fire and were ready to hunker down for the night, the seventh cold night, when a transformer in front of our house put on a spectacular fire work display and our lights came on! The funny thing is we turned the lights off and cuddled up if front of the fire with our hot chocolate.

I am so thankful for our kind friends and neighbors who helped us out. It is good to be reminded that there is so much good in the world. I pray for those who are still waiting for power.